WASHINGTON, D.C. – Let's have a much-needed discussion on this Cowboys quarterback debate on just who should play in these final two games of the 2025 season.
Oh, and we are going to inject some common sense into this if that's even a thing these days.
Should it be Pro Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott?
Or should it be second-year NFL backup quarterback Joe Milton?
Dak repeatedly says he wants to play.
Schotty and them say they want Dak to play, and for obvious reasons. This is Year 1 of Brian Schottenheimer's head coaching career. And this is not being selfish, and he would not ever say this, but bet he would love not to start off with a losing season. With the Cowboys currently 6-8-1 with two games to play, even second grade math tells us the Cowboys need to win both games to at least finish .500 at 8-8-1.
And can't win two unless you win the first one, here on Christmas Day against the 4-11 Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium.
Now get the argument about wanting to keep Dak upright. Do not endanger the franchise's best player in meaningless games since having been eliminated from playoff contention. Get it.
But here is the problem, and it's an organic one since the Cowboys are playing their fourth Thursday game of the season – the opener, the Thanksgiving Double – following that Thursday with another Thursday game – and now completing the Holiday Double on Christmas. A short week. Really short week.
The Cowboys played that home game Sunday against the Chargers they lost, 34-17. Now they play an East Coast road game four days later. They had a walk-through, light practice on Monday. They had a fuller practice on Tuesday, Schotty saying they would get like six to eight full speed reps. The rest at half to quarter speed. A likely meeting and walk-through on Wednesday before their scheduled charter departure, arriving at their D.C. hotel about 6:15 p.m. EST.
In other words, little to no preparation time.
"This week we barely practiced," Schottenheimer said, realizing he had to do the best he could to keep his guys off their feet, and remember the Commanders don't have to travel and they last played on a Saturday, so an extra day of rest.
And you want to tell Joe Milton, hey big guy, with only one extended NFL participation in just his second season, and that the final game of the season last year with the Patriots, go in there and show me what you can do with little to no practice.
Come on, say it ain't so Joe.
Do you realize since the end of training camp, Dak hogs all the practice snaps with the first teamers during the regular season. Joe might get a few scraps. His multitude of snaps come with the scout team, not running the Cowboys offense but that's week's opponent offense.
How unfair would that be to Joe? How much of an evaluation would that provide?
Waste of time and energy if you also are still playing the majority of your starters, and if not, say you are sitting CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, then how unfair to Joe would that be just throwing him into the deep end without star preservers?
Now next week, we can readdress the situation.
But for Christmas Day, come on, Santa ain't sliding down no chimney here.
- Just Sayin': Dak has been selected to his fourth Pro Bowl, joining in the NFC Matthew Stafford and Sam Darnold, so wondering if some of these players voting in NFL.com's preseason Top 100 Player rankings would want a redo. Dak was ranked as the 79th best player in the NFL, and when it came to quarterbacks, 14 were ranked in the Top 100. Dak came in as the 13th QB, only Tua Tagovailoa finished lower at 91. Yep, just sayin'.
- Trading Places: Now this is a different story at left tackle with three-time Pro Bowl guard Tyler Smith taking about three slide steps to his left at tackle. This is more complicated. More immediate futuristic. Starter Tyler Guyton will miss his fifth game with a high ankle sprain. Backup Nate Thomas, while practicing, has a shoulder sprain, and despite that, he's been a tad overwhelmed when up against top defensive ends, and the Cowboys know if they are playing Dak, they need to upgrade that blindside protection. Plus, are the Cowboys sold on Guyton going forward as their starter. While improved, and knowing the second-year tackle has limited O-Line experience in his football career, he has been average, and in this NFL, left tackle has to be better than average if you want to keep your 32-year-old QB healthy. So, to me, this one comes down to this: Is T.J. Bass replacing Smith left guard better than Guyton playing left tackle, and if not, then either no move or find me a better free agent guard.
- Go With The Flo: Cowboys second year receiver Ryan Flournoy was on the ground helpless after laying out for a 13-yard reception in the second quarter Sunday. Down for sure. All the Chargers needed to do was touch him. But here comes Denzel Perryman flying in late, nailing Flo with a helmet to helmet hit, jerked and contorted his body, needing help to get off the field with his mama in the stands. Had no idea what or who hit him. Sprained knee, but luckily no ligament damage the Cowboys initially feared. Perryman came up to him after the game to apologize. Flo forgave him. The NFL did not, nailing Perryman with a two-game suspension. The up-and-coming wide receiver will be questionable for this game, but there should be no question just who the Cowboys third receiver is going forward.
- No Lamb In A Manger: Look, even though essentially missing four games, CeeDee Lamb in his sixth NFL season and yet two more games to play, has produced his sixth consecutive 1,000-yard season, only the third NFL receiver to do so, along with Mike Evans and Randy Moss for pretty fancy company. And with his 69 catches for 1,027 yards and three touchdowns, a case could have been made for both George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb becoming the first Cowboys pair of receivers to achieve Pro Bowls honors in the same season. Picken did, Lamb didn't, even though in those 11 full games played this season he totaled six 100-yard receiving games, matching the Pro Bowl receiver high of six by Jaxson Smith Njigba, causing Schotty to say going into this Christmas Day game, "A motivated CeeDee is a dangerous CeeDee . . . sure feels he should be on that (Pro Bowl) list."
- A Texas Original: His name is John Michael Youngblood. Not sure I ever knew that. He was "John John" to me, and just about to everybody else who knew him. He was born with physical disabilities. Confined to a wheelchair. But only physically. Mentally, emotionally, determinationally (OK, I made up a word), he was right there with the rest of us. John John at the age of 44 passed away Dec. 15. I'm told he filled the first Baptist Church of Gilmer for the memorial service. There wasn't a dry eye when his pal Neal McCoy, the East Texas noted country singer who traveled the country that one year singing the National Anthem and befriend John John to the point of hiring him to manage his merchandise and even have him ride shotgun around the country with him on his tour bus, sang Amazing Grace. I got to know John John when he would attend our Cowboys Legends radio shows up in the Cowboys Club. He was inquisitive, knowledgeable about his Cowboys. Loved when he asked questions. Loved his Cowboys. Why recommended attire for his service was Cowboys centric. And the Cowboys gave John John his dream job. He became the Cowboys Bus schedule coordinator. Worked for his team. Those here at The Star loved John John. Miss you pal.
- More Stocking Stuffers: Not sure there is a team in the NFL with two former players from just this past season on the NFC Pro Bowl team, but there they were, two of the three defensive ends, of course Micah Parsons traded to the Packers and DeMarcus Lawrence headed to Seattle in free agency . . . Wondering if the Cowboys can generate pressure on Washington quarterbacks on Christmas, since appears Marcus Marriota is highly questionable, leaving them with 39-year-old journeyman Josh Johnson and recently signed Jeff Driskell off the Cardinals practice squads, Johnson having thrown five passes this year in three mop-up appearances and Driskel having played two games over these past three seasons . . . Why 11 of the 15 quarterbacks the Cowboys have played this season have put up 100 QB ratings, leaving little wonder why they now have the 32nd ranked pass defense, and sure would help to record a sack or three since they have just one in the past three games . . . Here is another problem the Cowboys must fix, since over the past four games they have turned 15 red zone possessions into just six touchdowns while kicking eight field goals (one on downs), another reason why they have lost three of those four games.
So now it's 30 years since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl, that being the 1995 season when they went into Tempe, Ariz., to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX. And as the years tick by seems there is some obligation to remind these current players of the drought, as if this has been all on their shoulders to solve. Heck, the majority of these guys haven't even lived 30 years, so there is no reason they should feel the responsibility to atone for past failures.
But still they are asked, and so it's open season in 2025 after being eliminated from playoff contention to bring up the past failures of others. So, it was just the other day with Cowboys Pro Bowl guard Tyler Smith, and we give him this week's honor to have the last word.
"For me, and maybe it's a little bit selfish and maybe a little bit more personal but I've never won a championship at anything," says Smith, though having lived his 24 years in the DFW area during this drought. "Like I never won a championship in high school, not in college, so every year I come out here, every year I put in the work just to be a champion. So, you can nix the last 30 years, so my mom was a Saints fan anyway, so not really been trippin' about that.
"I feel like winning is about what's important now and I want to win now. I been across the room from Hall of Famers, guys who have played this sport at the highest level and they still haven't won, so it's not just about me. Not just about one person. It's ultimately about us as a team. I think our sense of urgency is extreme, like right now bro. You can't play football forever. You only get so many bites at the apple.
"So, I think we need to win now."
Well said, and a Merry Christmas to all.
